Monday, February 15, 2010

I think if I have one more client say to me, "so much for global warming", in response to the snowstorms on the East coast, I may go on a killing spree. Seriously, people, we can't afford to be this obtuse. I know you believe something must be true if Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck say it is so. I know it's confusing for you. After all you have trusted academics like James Inhofe, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Crichton one one side and 97% of the world's climatologists on the other.

It's like the game you play with babies where they think you've disappeared if you cover your face. Life ain't a game of "peek-a-boo". A snow-storm does not mitigate a preponderance of historical data. Actually the opposite,

... climate change denier Sen. James Inhofe told The New York Times that the recent weather furthered doubts over whether climate change is "unequivocal" or a human-made phenomenon.

If anything, though, the weather should help dispel those doubts, contend major climate scientists and activists.

"I wouldn't want to say global warming is the cause or the sole cause [of the snowstorms]but we are in a warming trend," he said. "It is absurd when we are in an overall warming trend that a snowstorm is evidence of a cooling trend. But the anti-science side – the ideologues – have been trying to push the idea that we're in a cooling trend and that this is evidence of that."

In fact, increased snowfall is entirely in line with climate projections, said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with WeatherUnderground.com.

... Romm agrees. "You heat up the planet and you put more moisture in the atmosphere, you get the more intense precipitation that has been observed globally and has been observed in the United States," he said.

But people believe what they want to believe or that they have a vested interest in believing. No point in letting the truth getting in the way.

1 comment:

Oh, I'm with you absolutely there. I ran into some posting on a pilot website the other night talking with ridicule about the concept of global warming, and of the hundreds of readers no one bothered to counter the guy. (Nor did I, I must say; what would be the point?) Your description of baby-face is exactly right. If I don't look at something then it's not there.